cated to each other their respective full powers, which were to be in due and proper form, have agreed to and concluded the following articles: Article 1. An arbitration tribunal shall be immediately appointed to determine the boundary line between the colony of Brit ish Guiana and the United States of Venezuela. Art. 2. The tribunal shall consist of five Jurists: Two on the part of Great Britain, nominated by the members of the judicial committee of her majesty's privy councilnamely, the Rt.-Hon. Baron Herschell, knight grand cross of the most honorable Order of the Bath, and the Hon. Sir Richard Henn Collins, knight, one of the justices of her Britannic majesty's Supreme Court of Judicature; two on the part of Venezuela, nominated, one by the president of the United States of Venezuela--namely, the Hon. Melville Weston Fuller, chief justice of the United States of America-and one nominated by the justices of the Supreme court of the United States of Americanamely, the Hon. David Josiah Brewer, a justice of the Supreme court of the United States of America; and of a fifth jurist to be selected by the four persons so nominated, or, in the event of their failure to agree within three months of the date of the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty, to be selected by his majesty the king of Sweden and Norway. The jurist so selected shall be president of the tribunal. If Art. 3. In case of the death, absence or incapacity to serve of any of the four arbitrators above named, or in the event of any snch arbitrator omitting or declining or ceasing to act as such, another jurist of repute shall be forthwith substituted in his place. such vacancy shall occur among those nominated on the part of Great Britain the substitute shall be appointed by the members for the time being of the judicial committee of her majesty's privy council acting by a majority; and if among those nominated on the part of Venezuela, he shall be appointed by the justices of the Supreme court of the United States acting by a majority. If such vacancy shall occur in the case of the fifth arbitrator a substitute shall be selected in the manner herein provided for with regard to the original appointment. Art. 4. The tribunal shall investigate and ascertain the extent of the territories be longing to or that might lawfully be claimed by the United Netherlands or by the kingdom of Spain, respectively, at the time of the acquisition by Great Britain of the colony of British Guiana, and shall determine the boundary line between the colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela. Art. 5. The arbitrators shall meet in Paris within sixty days after the delivery of the printed arguments mentioned in Art. 8, and shall proceed impartially and carefully to examine and decide the questions that have been or shall be laid before them as herein provided on the part of the governments of her Britannic majesty and the United States of Venezuela, respectively. Provided, always, that the arbitrators may, if they shall think fit, hold their meetings, or any of them, at any other place which they may determine. All questions considered by the tribunal, including the final decision, shall be determined by a majority of all the arbitrators. Each of the high contracting parties shall name one person as its agent. to attend the tribunal and to represent it generally in all matters connected with the tribunal. Art. 6. The printed case of each of the two parties, accompanied by the documents, the official correspondence and other evidence on which each relies, shall be delivered in duplicate to each of the arbitrators and to the agent of the other party as soon as may be after the appointment of the members, not exceeding eight months from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty. Art. 7. Within four months after the delivery on both sides of the printed case either party may in like manner deliver in duplicate to each of the said arbitrators, and to the agent of the other party, a counter case, and additional documents, correspondence and evidence in reply to the case, documents, correspondence and evidence so presented by the other party. If in the case submitted to the arbitrators either party shall have specified or alluded to any report or document in its own exclusive possession, without annexing a copy, such party shall be bound, if the other party thinks proper to apply for it, to furnish that party with a copy thereof, and either party may call upon the other, through the arbitrators, to produce the originals or certified copies of any papers adduced as evidence, giving in each instance notice thereof with in thirty days after delivery of the case; and the original or copy so requested shall be delivered as soon as may be and within a period not exceeding forty days after the receipt of notice. Art. 8. It shall be the duty of the agent of each party, within three months after the expiration of the time limited for the delivery of the counter case on both sides to deliver in duplicate to each of the said arbitrators and to the agent of the other party a printed argument showing the points and referring to the evidence upon which his government relies, and either party may also support the the same before the arbitrators by oral argument of counsel; and the arbitrators may, if they desire further elucidation with regard to any point, require a written or printed statement or argument or oral argument by counsel upon it; but in such case the other party shall be entitled to reply either orally or in writing, as the case may be. Art. 9. The arbitrators may, for any cause deemed by them sufficient, enlarge either of the periods fixed by Arts. 6, 7 and 8 by the allowance of thirty days additional. Art. 10. The decision of the tribunal shall, if possible, be made within three months from the close of the argument on both sides. It shall be made in writing and dated, and shall be signed by the arbitrators who may assent to it. The decision shall be in duplicate, one copy whereof shall be delivered to the agent of Great Britain for his government and the other copy shall be delivered to the agent of the United States of Venezuela for his government. Art. 11. The arbitrators shall keep an accurate record of their proceedings and may appoint and employ the necessary officers to assist them. Art. 12. Each government shall pay its own agent and provide for the proper remuneration of the counsel employed by it and its arbitrators appointed by it, or in its behalf, and for the expense of preparing and submitting its case to the tribunal. All other expenses connected with the arbitra tion shall be defrayed by the two governments in equal moieties. Art. 13. The high contracting parties engage to consider the result of the proceedIngs of the tribunal of arbitration as a full, perfect and final settlement of all the questions referred to the arbitrators. Art. 14. The present treaty shall be duly ratified by her Britannic majesty and by the president of the United States of Venezuela by and with the approval of the congress thereof, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in London or in Washington within six months from the date hereof. As some objections were raised to the choice of King Oscar as a member of the tribunal, his name was omitted in the ratification of the treaty. It was not until October that the fifth jurist was chosen; he is Prof. Maertens, a distinguished Russian Jurist, who will be president of the court. Prof. Maertens' reputation as an author ity on international law is world-wide and has led to his frequent selection as arbitrator and umpire in international differences. He is an official of the Russian foreign office, professor of international law at the University of St. Petersburg and author of "Maertens' Treatise," the standard book of reference on all the treaties of the world. Arrangements are being made for the assembling of the court at Paris during the late summer or autumn of the present year (1898). On the 27th of February, 1897, the Venezuelan boundary commission, consisting of D. J. Brewer, A. D. White, F. R. Coudert, D. C. Gilman and R. H. Alvey, appointed by President Cleveland, ceased its Tabors, the treaty between Venezuela and Great Britain making it unnecessary for it to proceed further. The report will be published in four large volumes and will be of value to the court when it meets in Paris. Pluribus Unum." In the field of the shield are two rows of stars, six in the upper and seven in the lower row. There is also a large white star in each of the four corners of the flag itself. Provision has likewise been made for a smaller nearly square flag OF OFFICIALS. emblem of the secretary of war. With the exception of the flags of the admiral, viceadmiral, commodore and other officers of the navy, the three flags described above are the only special ones belonging to government officials. The use of these special flags is, as a rule, confined strictly to ceremonious occasions and the natural result of this is that they are unfamiliar to the general public. Wherever the president's flag flies it denotes his presence in the vessel or building over which it is hoisted. The flag of the secretary of the navy is displayed at the main during the time that the secretary remains on board of any war vessel. There has not yet been any occasion for the use of the new flag of the secretary of war, but, like the others, its display will indicate the presence of the secretary either afloat or ashore. ALASKA, ITS BOUNDARY AND GOLD FIELDS. THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. The discovery of rich gold fields near and about the eastern boundary of Alaska, north of Mount St. Elias, has added considerable interest to the controversy between the United States and Great Britain as to the exact location of the line of demarcation between this country and British Columbia. What was then known as Russian America, now as Alaska, was ceded to the United States by Russia on the 30th of March, 1867. The sum agreed upon as the consideration for the transfer was $7,000,000, but when it was ascertained that there were a fur company and an ice company enjoying monopolies under the Russian government the United States thought it expedient to extinguish the rights of these companies, and $200.000 additional was added to the purchase price and the territory was ceded to the United States free from all incumbrance. The treaty of cession described the eastern boundary as follows: "Commencing from the southernmost point of an island called Prince of Wales island, which point lies in the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, and between the 131st and 133d degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called the Portland channel as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point the line of demarcation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude (same meridian); and finally, from said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its prolongation as far as the frozen ocean." Although there is no record of official correspondence on the subject, the eastern boundary line of Alaska appears to have been a matter of informal discussion between the United States and Great Britain soon after the territory was purchased. In his annual message to congress in December, 1872, President Grant recommended the appointment of a joint commission to locate the line, but no action_was taken by congress. In May, 1886, President Cleveland transmitted to congress copies of a correspondence on the subject between the secretary of state and Mr. Phelps, our minister to England, and recommended the appropriation of $100,000 for making a preliminary survey of the frontier territory. In August Lord Gough asked Secretary of State Olney if a joint surveyor could not be appointed to act with Mr. William Ogilvie, who was then about to survey the intersection of the 141st meridian and the Yukon river. The result of this correspondence was a treaty between the United States and Great Britain, signed Jan. 30, 1897, which provided for the appointment of a joint commission of two (one commissioner from each government) to ascertain and mark by visible objects "so much of the 141st meridian of west longitude as is necessary to be defined for the purpose of determining the exact limits of the territory ceded to the United States by the treaty between the United States and Russia of March 30, 1867." It will be seen by the text of the treaty quoted that it provides only for the ascertainment and marking of that portion of the Alaskan boundary about which there has never been any dispute namely, the portion lying north of Mount St. Elias and constituted by the 141st meridian as mentioned in the treaty of March 30, 1867. The location of the line is merely a matter of geodesy. In fact, Mount St. Elias is in longitude 140 degrees 55 minutes 47.3 seconds west, or something like two miles east of and on the British side of the 141st meridian. The location of the line on the 141st meridian will add to the British territory a strip of land about twenty miles long, two miles wide at its base and tapering to a point, with an area of about twenty square miles. The boundary controversy as to the divisional line south of Mount St. Elias and running south, parallel with the coast, to Prince of Wales island, is not a subject for the commissioners appointed under the treaty of Jan. 30, 1897, to consider. As to the boundary line southeast of the 141st degree of west longitude to the Prince of Wales island the treaty of cession says: "Wherever the summit of the mountains, which extend in a direction parallel to the coast from 56 degrees of north latitude to the point of intersection of 141 degrees of west longitude, shall prove to be a distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned, shall be formed by a line parallel to the widening of the coast and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom." In regard to this part of the boundary line Gen. Duffield, superintendent of the coast and geodetic survey, and a member of the boundary commission, said in July, 1897: "On all maps from 1825 down to 1884 the boundary line has been shown as in general terms parallel to the windings of the coast and thirty-five miles from it. In 1884, however, an official Canadian map showed a marked deflection in this line at its south end. Instead of passing up Portland channel this Canadian map showed the boundary as passing up Behm canal, an arm of the sea some sixty or seventy miles west of Portland channel, this change having been made on the bare assertion that the words 'Portland canal,' as inserted, were erroneons. By this change an area of American territory about equal in size to the state of Connecticut was transferred to British territory. There are three facts which go to show that this map was incorrect. In the first place, the British admiralty, when surveying the northern limit of the British Columbian possessions in 1868, one year after the cession of Alaska, surveyed Portland canal, and not Behm canal, and thus, by implication, admitted this canal to be the boundary line. Second, the region now claimed by British Columbia was at that time occupied as a military post of the United States without objection or protest on the part of British Columbia. Third, Annette island, in this region, was, by act of congress four years ago, set apart as a reservation for the use of the Metlektala Indians, who sought asylum under the American flag to escape annoyances experienced under the British flag. "Another change was made at Lynn canal, the northernmost extension of the Alexander archipelago, which runs north of Juneau and is the land outlet of the Yukon trade. If the official Canadian map of 1884 carried the boundary line around the head of this canal another Canadian map, three years later, carried the line across the head of the anal in such a manner as to throw its headwaters into British territory. Still later Canadian maps carry the line, not across the head of the canal, but across near its mouth, some sixty or seventy miles south of the former line, in such a way as practically to take in Juneau, or at least all overland immediately back of it. And the very latest Canadian map, published at Ottawa within a few days, while it runs no line at all southeast of Alaska, prints the legend British Columbia' over portions of the Lynn canal which are now administered by the United States." The report of the commission has not yet been acted upon by congress. THE KLONDIKE GOLD REGION. Where is the Klondike? In reply to this question H. K. Carroll, LL. D., says: "The Klondike is one of a number of creeks which empty into the Yukon, and gold is found in the gravel deposits which form the valleys through which these streams run. The richest finds have been on the Klondike and the Bonanza; but claims have been laid out also on Dominion, Indian, Hunker, Glacier, Miller, Eldorado and Gold Bottom creeks. These are nearly all in British territory. But we have gold fields just across the border in our own territory of Alaska. There are paying mines at Circle City on the Yukon, at Forty Mile, at the junction of Forty Mile creek with the Yukon. and probably on other streams to the south. "The discovery of the wonderful deposits in the Klondike region appears to have been made in August, a year ago, by George Cormack. Evidently he was not succeeding at Forty Mile, which is on the Yukon, in Alaska, and strolled across the border on a prospecting tour. He found gold in paying quantities near the junetion of the Bonanza and Klondike creeks, and returned to Forty Mile for help. With two Indians he was able to 'pan out' about $500 a week. The news was slow in reaching Circle City, a large camp of miners about 200 miles lower down on the Yukon. Perhaps they did not believe the first reports. At all events, it was December before any movement was made. Then in one day Circle City was depopulated and a new city, Dawson, was established at the mouth of the Klondike, on the Yukon. There was a mad rush for the new country. Immediately it was all staked out. Along every stream and in every gulch claims were marked off and with feverish haste the work of thawing the gravel was begun. There was then water to wash the dirt with; but they could not wait for summer to loose the streams, so some of them made 'rockers' and tunneled and 'rocked' the earth and found it full of gold." no In a report made by Prof. J. E. Spurr to the United States geological survey, 1897, the statement is made that the first discoveries in the Yukon district were made in 1885, on Stewart river, Cassiar bar and Lewes river. In the following year gold was found on Forty Mile creek, and its tributaries, Glacier creek, Davis creek, Poker creek, etc., were prospected with good results for several years. Miller creek (in British territory) was as $50,000; in 1891 this amount doubled; in 1893 the product of the Alaskan creeks was given as $198,000; in 1894 it reached $409,000, and in 1895 $709,800 was the amount estimated for the Yukon district and $69,689 for outside creeks. In that year Eagle creek, a tributary of Birch creek, was discovered. The condition of the Forty Mile district in the summer of 1896 was not as encouraging as formerly, owing to the six weeks' drought, which prevented the water from running the sluices and caused enforced idleness. The Birch creek region, on the other hand, was flourishing. At this time discoveries were made on the Klondike river (about twenty miles from Forty Mile creek). Placers on Hunker creek, Indian creek and Bonanza creek, the principal branch of the Klondike, gave good returns. On Bonanza creek $1,000 was taken out in August and September, 1896, and 400 claims were located up to January, 1897. Gulches and creeks showing good prospects are spread over 700 square miles. The mining population in the Yukon region was estimated in 1896 at about 1,700, and the gold production for that year, including United States and British territory, is estimated at $1,400,000. Upon the subject of prospecting and mining Prof. Spurr says: "The Yukon districts lie in a broad belt of gold-producing rocks, having a considerable width and extending in a general east and west direction for several hundred miles. "Throughout this belt occur quartz veins which carry gold, but so far as yet found out the ore is of low grade and a large proportion of the veins have been so broken by movements in the rocks that they cannot. be followed. For this reason the mines in the bed rock cannot be worked, except on a large scale with improved machinery, and even such operations are impossible until the general conditions of the country in reference to transportation and supplies are improved. "Through rocks the gold-bearing the streams have cut deep gullies and canyons and in their beds the gold which was contained in the rocks which have been worn away is concentrated, so that from a large amount of very low-grade rock there may be formed in places a gravel sufficiently rich in gold to repay washing. All the mining which is done in this country, therefore, consists in the washing out of these gravels. "In each gulch prospectors are at liberty to stake out claims not already taken, the size of the claims being determined by vote of all the miners in each gulch, according to the richness of the gravel. The usual length of a claim is about 500 feet along the stream and the total width of the gulch bed, which is ordinarily narrow. When a prospector has thus staked out his claim it is recorded by one of the miners, who is elected by his fellows in each gulch for that sufficient secures him purpose, and this title. The miners' laws are practically the entire government in these districts, for the remoteness prevents any systematic communication being carried on with the United States. All questions and disputes are settled by miners' meetings and the question in dispute is put to popular vote. "In prospecting the elementary method of panning is used to discover the presence of gold in gravel, but after a claim is staked long sluice and systematic work begun opened for min ing in 1892. Birch creek, with its various branches, was discovered in 1893 and Circle City was founded. In 1890 the director of the United States mint estimated the production of the Yukon placers boxes are built of boards, the miners being obliged to fell the trees themselves and saw out the lumber with whipsaws, a very laborious kind of work. The depth of gravel in the bottom of the gulches varies from a foot |